UNEMPLOYED people claiming benefits are more 50 per cent more likely to be face brutal sanctions in Dundee than in Glasgow, according to new research.

An examination of the latest figures out the postcode lottery facing those who are on Jobseekers Allowance.

People have their benefits stopped or cut for a variety of reasons but the Department for Work and Pensions insist staff have no targets and that sanction rates are falling.

People who are sanctioned can have their payments stopped for four weeks, or as much as three years, depending on how many times the rules are broken.

Reasons for sanctions include being late or not attending Jobcentre meetings and training, or not applying for enough jobs.

The DWP said the sanctions regime is a necessary part of the benefits system, but a committee of MPs has twice called for an inquiry into how they work.

But according to the analysis by research group, The New Policy Institute (NPI), the monthly sanction referral rate in Dundee in 2014 was 509, or 12.4 per cent – 4.7 percentage points higher than in Glasgow 1,327 or 7.7 per cent.

In Scotland as a whole in 2014, the average monthly sanction rate for those aged under-25 was 8 per cent compared to 3.7 per cent for those aged 25 and over.

The NPI director, Peter Kenway, said there did not appear to be any good reason for the disparity between Dundee and Glasgow in terms of the claimants themselves.

He said: “You’d expect some random fluctuation but the difference between 12 per cent of people every month and 7.5 per cent every month can’t in any way just be put down to random day-to-day fluctuation.

“It’s a clear sign that although it’s the same system on paper, things are being run very differently in Dundee from the way it’s run in Glasgow. To have the benefits system run unevenly and unfairly is completely unacceptable.

“It’s not that people want a soft system, they want a fair and straight system.”

He added: “What we’ve got at the minute is a harsh system that’s being applied very unevenly. And there’s no evidence to suggest that Dundee’s got it right.”

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